If you fancy jokes on Sardaars, the kind that are regular in joke books and smses, Son Of Sardaar is the film for you. Director Ashwni Dhir’s film is best described as a compilation of the most popular jokes on Sikhs. In the film, some of them make you laugh while others bore you out of your skull.

There are no two ways of what SOS tries to do. From its introductory shot the film makes it clear with the lines Jiska MC BC mein hai pyar, jo hai dildaar, son of sardaar. So the story revolves around son of sardaar Jassi (Ajay Devgn) who returns to his native Punjab after an absence of 25 years to sell off his father’s property. He’s greeted by his arch nemesis Ballu (Sanjay Dutt) who’s been waiting to avenge his elder brother’s death. It so happens that 25 years ago, Jassi’s father and Ballu’s brother have killed each other. To sample the film’s juvenile humour, Ballu swears not to marry until he’s avenged his brother’s death. And he has all his cousins swear in that they won’t have ice creams and cold drinks till his vendetta is settled. If that’s not enough, Jassi lands up in Ballu’s house as a guest. But Jassi can’t be harmed because Ballu’s family believes in a tradition where they don’t kill enemies in the house. And to add a twist of romantic comedy, Jassi falls for Ballu’s niece Sukkhi (Sonakshi Sinha). It’s their love story that acts as a deterrent to the hostilities.

SOS reaches the apex of its entertainment value right at the start. With Ajay Devgn emulating his classic stunt from the Phool Aur Kaante days, applause from the audience is guaranteed. Add to that a stellar opening action sequence and a cameo by Salman Khan, and you feel SOS is going to be one helluva ride. But, everything thereon is downhill. Subsequently as the film unfolds, you come to realise you’re just being treated to dramatized versions of popular jokes. Sample this. Jassi says he won’t go back to India, because people back home will call him Hindustan Leaver (a pun on the FMCG giant Hindustan Lever). Or a bunch of village folk trying to identify a grown up man from his childhood photo. And one smart aleck remarking, they’ll enlarge the photo to match his growth. Given that at times these situations make for good comedy, but how much can one take of such arbitrary and bizarre humour? Surely not a film full of it.

What’s actually funny in the film is situational comedy between Sukkhi and Jassi. Their naïve romance, their misfit adventures in a train with a coconut etc are genuinely funny. But that’s just a miniscule part of SOS’ lengthy runtime.

You can’t even defend the theme of warring clans and families because such formulae belonged in the ’80s and are long considered passé. What mildly entertain are the action scenes. The altercations between Ajay Devgn and Sanjay Dutt make for good parody on run-of-the-mill action stunts.

But you can’t complain about the actors. Ajay Devgn gives his simple role his heart and soul. He makes Jassi a charming and loveable Sikh. And the reason half the film’s gags work is down to Ajay’s comic timing. Sonakshi Sinha delivers another crowd pleasing performance. The highlight of her role is the generous amount of Kutte Kaminey expletives up for her perusal. Sanjay Dutt and Juhi Chawla are veterans at comic timing as well as screen presence and they do not disappoint.

But even as the actors perform with conviction, other departments of filmmaking let SOS down. In particular to blame are the writers. For a film that advocates the line, “sardaar pe joke karna par use joker mat samajhna” (Joke on a Sardaar but don’t treat him like a Joker) the film goes on to present its protagonist (a Sardaar) and most characters in the same light. Comedy is more than just gags and slapstick. Sadly SOS gets it wrong.